0% trans fats, 4% increase in Argentine margarine market

Flora Dánica made a sales success of the fact that they were first in the Argentine market with trans-free margarines.

Consumers are watching more carefully what they eat and what is written on food labels. The new trans fat labelling introduced in the USA in January 2006 has created a big interest in enzymatic interesterification for the production of trans-free margarine fats in North America. Similar labelling was introduced in parts of Latin America in August 2006. In Europe, where chemical interesterification is widely used, margarine manufacturers are now looking at enzymatic interesterification as a viable alternative.

Award-winning technology

In July 2002 ADM built the first commercial units in the USA for enzymatic interesterification using Lipozyme® TL IM from Novozymes. They were pioneers in the production of trans-free margarines and shortenings. In fact, on June 20, 2005, the US Environmental Protection Agency presented a 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award to the joint ADM and Novozymes teams for their use of enzymes to develop healthier oils and fats. This enzymatic technology addresses two major challenges for the food industry: firstly, providing healthier products to the public and, secondly, developing environmentally responsible production technology.

Another pioneer is an Argentine company called Flora Dánica that is the first in the world to produce trans-free fats using a new engineering solution developed jointly by Novozymes and Desmet Ballestra, a well-known international supplier to the oils and fats industry. This is proof that a reliable and competitive process is available for large-scale enzymatic interesterification. Now a real alternative to chemical interesterification is generally available. In comparison to the chemical process, enzymatic interesterification offers a clean technology that produces no effluents or unwanted by-products and requires little post-treatment of the interesterified oil.

Enzymes are biological catalysts that represent green technology. Being biological, they allow oils and fats to be processed in a more natural way.

Successful launch

Flora Dánica is Argentina’s leading manufacturer of margarine. In July 2005, they took a bold step. After 65 years in the Argentine market, they had built up a successful range of table margarines accounting for a 60% share of the consumer market. Then they changed everything! To avoid the formation of trans fatty acids (TFAs), they revised their production process and introduced a new enzymatic process to modify vegetable oils. Then they relaunched all of their margarines with new packaging and the ‘nutriSystem’ symbol to indicate that the products were now free of TFAs.

Mercedes Larrain is Manager of Quality Control and R&D at Flora Dánica. She and her team were responsible for developing the new products. “Overnight we completely changed our packaging and pack design to show that the margarines were different. There is a great risk in changing when you are the leader,” she says. “However, the risk has paid off. Sales of margarine had been declining slowly in recent years, but in 2005 the total Argentine margarine market increased by 4%.”

Mercedes Larrain attributes this primarily to the increasing sales of Flora Dánica’s new products launched with a campaign to promote the health benefits of trans-free margarines.

Cholesterol risk

“It has recently been discovered that TFAs have at least the same impact on the cardiovascular system as saturated fatty acids,” says Mercedes Larrain. “There is a correlation between the intake of TFAs and the increase in cholesterol in the blood. TFAs have also been associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in epidemiological studies. Argentinians are becoming increasingly health-conscious. Women in particular are watching what they eat and what they give to their children.”

In 2006, Flora Dánica also introduced two new ranges of shortenings for industrial customers: Danlow, with up to 10% TFAs, and Danova, with zero TFAs.

First in the world

The margarines and shortenings are made with a blend of interesterified and non-interesterified oils. Interesterification changes the melting profile of blends of oils and fats to give them the desired solid fat content and melting point characteristics for table margarines and shortenings.

To perform the interesterification, the Novozymes enzyme Lipozyme® TL IM is used. In July 2005, Flora Dánica began running the first industrial enzymatic interesterification plant to be sold by Desmet Ballestra. The plant has four 100 kg enzyme reactors in series, giving a capacity to produce 20 tons of interesterified fats per day. The enzyme is immobilised and packed into the reactors.

Desmet Ballestra has an agreement with Novozymes to jointly promote this new technology. They supply the engineering know-how and equipment, while Novozymes supplies the enzymes.

“This has been a real joint development based on close technical cooperation,” says Luis Alessandro, who was closely involved as Novozymes’ sales coordinator for the oils and fats industry in Latin America. He sees Flora Dánica as “the reference” for enzymatic interesterification, not just for Latin America, but for the rest of the world.

Better than chemicals

Flora Dánica previously made margarines from oils processed in the traditional way by partial hydrogenation. When they were planning to produce trans-free fats, they decided to switch to the interesterification process because using fully hydrogenated fats is not an option. These fats do not melt in the mouth and must therefore be blended with liquid oils and then interesterified.

Flora Dánica had the choice between chemical and enzymatic interesterification. Both methods were assessed in the laboratory. The main advantages of the enzymatic process are a mild temperature, no neutralization or bleaching is needed, no liquid effluents are generated, and the enzymes are safer to handle than very reactive and unstable chemicals.

The enzymatic process takes place at 70°C whereas chemical interesterification requires a temperature of 110°C. At such a high temperature, the oil becomes coloured and a bleaching step is required. Sodium soaps are also produced, requiring a water wash of the oil, which leads to wastewater and loss of oil. All this can be avoided. No waste products are produced apart from the enzymes themselves, which are proteins and therefore biological.

Better taste

In consumer trials conducted by Flora Dánica, consumer panels found that the new margarines made by enzymatic interesterification actually tasted better and “fresher” than Flora Dánica’s previous range of margarines.

“The enzymatic process is best not only for the consumer, but also for us in terms of ecological impact, safety and a clean process,” says Mercedes Larrain of Flora Dánica.

Carlos García (left) and Mercedes Larrain of Flora Dánica with Luis Alessandro of Novozymes. An immobilized lipase from Novozymes is used at the Llavallol plant near Buenos Aires, where Carlos is Production Manager and Mercedes is Research Manager.

“The process has been working very smoothly,” says Carlos García, the Production Manager at Flora Dánica’s Llavallol plant in Buenos Aires, pictured beside the series of four enzyme reactors.

The term ‘nutriSystem’ is used by Flora Dánica to indicate that the margarine is free of trans fats.